Fight Back: 81 Ways to Help You Save Money and Protect Yourself from Corporate Trickery

Product Details

In this book Ellen Roseman distills the financial advice she gives in her columns and blogs into 81 quick tips that all Canadians can use to help them spend sensibly, save money, and avoid costly consumer traps. This book of "personal finance greatest hits" is filled with illustrative examples and cautionary advice from Roseman and stories from her faithful readers. Filled with a wealth of information, the book includes the low-down on dealing with banks and car dealers, cutting costs of communication services, improving your credit, buying and renovating a home, fighting online fraud, ensuring you have the right insurance, and more.

Offers an easy-to-use guide for being smart with your money

Includes how to advice on handling the most common financial pitfalls

Contains the best advice from Ellen Roseman's columns and blogs

Written by Canada's most popular and savvy consumer advocate

Don't spend another dollar until you read Ellen Roseman's best-ever tips for saving money and making wise financial decisions.

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Ellen Roseman is well known as a consumer advocate, with an impressive pedigree in financial journalism. She writes regularly as a personal finance columnist for the Toronto Star, and maintains a popular blog at www.ellenroseman.com. Her first book, titled “Consumer Beware” was published in 1974, and now with the January, 2013 release of “Fight Back,” she has authored seven books over a remarkable span of almost forty years. Fight Back does not disappoint. Ellen’s teachings focus on everyday areas of our lives which can cost us hundreds, even thousands of dollars, unless we are vigilant and willing to stand up for ourselves. The book is divided into seven parts; each part has several short chapters, and all told there are 81 discrete pieces of advice. • Part 1: Outsmarting the banks • Part 2: Keeping your finances on track • Part 3: Taming your telecom costs • Part 4: Stretching your travel dollars • Part 5: Fighting back against poor retail service • Part 6: Protecting your big dollar purchases of cars and houses • Part 7: Using your communication skills and the courts Ellen herself wrote roughly 2/3 of the book, and enlisted the help of several other subject matter experts to contribute chapters for the remainder of the book. As the guest authors and Ellen are interspersed throughout each part, you might think this would create a bit of mishmash, but this is not the case, for Ellen and her editor have done a fine job of making the transitions seamless. As a reader, you quickly come to care less about who actually wrote a particular piece, and just happy to have it all in one place; all vetted and approved by Ellen herself. I know my family has experienced firsthand many of the issues discussed in the book. For example, How to avoid losing money on a gym membership; and How to fight back against car leasing charges; How to get the best value for your Telecom, cable and internet dollars (people are often shocked when I point out the cumulative total of how much they are spending on these “necessities.”) Other chapters of note: How to fight back against the Canada Revenue Agency; How to avoid medical bills when crossing the border; How to get your money back when you pay with a credit card; and How to write the perfect complaint letter. To this day, when I’m confronted with a testy situation where I feel I am being screwed (either unconsciously or with malice) I often find myself using the magic words “I wonder what Ellen Roseman will write about this…..”, and more often than not, the conversation turns in my favor. She is that powerful. My biggest success was convincing a major car manufacturer to take our one year old car back and upgrade us to a brand new model, because of a litany of service issues right from the get go. (How many of you have returned a one year old car for a full refund?) So yes, I am a big fan of Ellen Roseman, and I recommend you buy this book. Just as the Wealthy Barber struck a chord with people from all generations, this book has the potential to do the same. David Chilton himself says “A truly amazing reference.”

Date published: 2013-02-14

– More About This Product –

Fight Back: 81 Ways to Help You Save Money and Protect Yourself from Corporate Trickery

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10: 1118300882

ISBN - 13: 9781118300886

Table of Contents

Foreword by Dave Chilton xiIntroduction xiiiPART 1: OUTSMARTING THE BANKS 11. Get a Higher Interest Rate on Your Savings 52. How to Fight Back when a Bank Cuts the Interest on Your Savings 83. Look Beyond the Big Banks for Higher Savings Rates 114. How to Get Higher Savings Rates without Getting Burned 155. How to Trim the Bank’s Service Charges 186. How to Fight Back when You Miss a Discount You Deserve 217. Challenge Bank Fees for RRSPs and Other Registered Plans 248. Watch Out for Foreign Exchange Conversion Fees 279. Find the Best Credit Cards for Rewards and Benefits 3010. Find the Best Credit Card if You Carry a Balance 3511. Watch Out for Credit Card Balance Transfers 3812. Watch Out for Expensive Credit Card Insurance 4113. Beware of Penalties when You Break a Closed Mortgage 4514. How a Customer Fought Back Against a Bank’s Mortgage Penalty 4915. How to Avoid Interest Penalties when Paying Off Your Mortgage Early by Paul Brick 5216. Why It Pays to Know Your Rights by Ursula Menke 5517. How to Outsmart the Banks at Their Own Game by Matt Goulart 5818. How to Get the Best Service from a Bank by Douglas Melville 6019. How to Get the Best Service from a Bank if You Own a Business by Douglas Melville 63PART 2: KEEPING YOUR FINANCES ON TRACK 6720. How to Check on Your Credit Report and Credit Score 7121. How to Correct Errors on Your Credit Report by Ross Taylor 7422. How to Fight Back when Your Credit History Is a Mess by Ross Taylor 7723. How to Make Sure Your Credit His

From the Publisher

Money-saving advice from Canada's leading consumer advocate

In this book Ellen Roseman distills the financial advice she gives in her columns and blogs into 81 quick tips that all Canadians can use to help them spend sensibly, save money, and avoid costly consumer traps. This book of "personal finance greatest hits" is filled with illustrative examples and cautionary advice from Roseman and stories from her faithful readers. Filled with a wealth of information, the book includes the low-down on dealing with banks and car dealers, cutting costs of communication services, improving your credit, buying and renovating a home, fighting online fraud, ensuring you have the right insurance, and more.

Offers an easy-to-use guide for being smart with your money

Includes how to advice on handling the most common financial pitfalls

Contains the best advice from Ellen Roseman's columns and blogs

Written by Canada's most popular and savvy consumer advocate

Don't spend another dollar until you read Ellen Roseman's best-ever tips for saving money and making wise financial decisions.

From the Jacket

BECAUSE YOUR MONEY BELONGS IN YOUR WALLET.

What do you do as a consumer when you disagree with a bill or a service charge you're asked to pay? When faced with a mysterious charge, unexpected or unfair fees, or a poor quality product or service, you've got a choice. You can roll over and part with your hard-earned money or you can fight back.

Consumer advocate Ellen Roseman takes you through the most common problems you may encounter with your everyday banking, credit, telecom, travel and retail transactions. She tells you how to detect corporate tricks, how to resolve your complaints and how to get your money back.

You'll learn how to avoid falling into consumer traps, how to get the best service from the companies you deal with and how to say goodbye to the companies that don't treat you well. With real-life stories, examples and contributions from specialists on a variety of topics, Fight Back covers:

Banking: Get the best rates on savings and mortgages, and avoid service charges and penalties

Credit issues: Get mistakes off your credit report, improve your credit score and get the best credit card rates

Telecom: Tame your bills or even cancel them by breaking free from the big companies

Car and Home: Get value from your biggest purchases and guard against lemon cars, unfair leasing charges, and bad builders

Communication: Learn the skills you need to write effective complaint letters, use social media and pursue a company in court.

About the Author

Ellen Roseman is a journalist who sticks up for ordinary Canadians. As a long-time advocate for consumer rights, she's become a brand name for activism and a champion at helping consumers fight back against injustices. Her columns appear three times a week in the Toronto Star and her popular blog, EllenRoseman.com, has been online since 2007. She's the author of seven books, including Money 101: Every Canadian's Guide to Personal Finance and Money 201: More Personal Finance Advice for Every Canadian. She teaches investing and personal finance at the University of Toronto's continuing studies department and Ryerson University's Chang School, and is on the board of FAIR (Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights) and Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO).